During World War II, the U.S. Navy commissioned Charles and Ray Eames to use their molded plywood technique to develop leg splints for wounded soldiers. These urgently needed designs with their requisite attention to human form inspired the Eames’s plywood chairs, which became icons of post-war American design. On this DCW-model chair, shock mounts made of black synthetic rubber (itself a new material and World War II commodity) articulate the five separate compound-curve plywood pieces. The seat and back are shaped to support and wrap the body, while the rubber allows for a subtle, comfortable flex. The chair, available with either metal or wood legs, possessed a wholesome solidarity that at the same time evoked the lightness and informality of post-war Modernism.